Problem striking with the ball of my foot in round kick

When I try to strike with the ball of my foot when I round kick, my big toe tends to hit the target before the ball and get smashed. I've been ignoring it the past few years, figuring I would get used to it, but the pain just gets slightly worse. when i pull my toes back, they come back about 60 degrees. I also train striking with my shin.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so, how have you delt with it? Is the issue not pulling my toes back far enough, or mayhaps bad foot positioning?

Hitting with the ball of the foot in a round kick IS retarded. Hit with the shin or instep.

Ball of your foot is for push kicks.

Enh. It's worked okay for me, but not as a standard round kick. The technique is difficult to describe, but it is not a conventional chambered kick. You straighten the leg and extend the hip out so that it acts something like a combination between a push kick and a round kick. It has a shorter range but a smaller striking surface. You do not retract te kicking leg as in a chambered kick; follows through in a short arc (it does not turn you right around).

I don't have must advice for you, other than to do toe raises off the edge of a ring, with your heels down, to strengthen the muscles that contract your toes towards 90 degrees as much as possible; and to play with the angles, the angles of your kicks, the flex of your ankles.

I'm usually really open to techniques and methods from all styles, but roundkicks with the ball of the foot are just plain stupid unless you're wearing hard toed shoes/boots. The reason you're hurting your toes is because it's damn near impossible to hit with the ball of your foot on a roundkick. For the sake of your feet, stop.

It sounds like you're trying to use the ball of the foot round kick in situations where the shin kick would be more appropriate. The positioning between you and the target is different for the two kicks. To connect with the ball of the foot, say for a right round kick, you should be at a forty five degree angle to the left and front of the target.
And don't try and kick through the target with this type of kick.

I'm not gonna outright say that the kick is retarded, as I have worked with enough that I can throw the technique w/o injury. That said, before I get flamed, I much prefer the usual striking roundhouse surface (in our school somewhere between the 'hump' on top of the foot and the low end of the shin) just because we drill with in much, much more and it feels more natural.

In defense of the kick, when you can do it right it can be mean b/c the ball of the foot is naturally very tough and the whole weight of the foot/ankle is coming directly behind it.

Whisper, if you're serious about developing this A) be prepared to work on it a good deal and B)keep working on the regular roundhouse enough that you have it if you need it. With that in mind start with lots of light placement kicking on something firm so you know when it feels right on your foot and when it don't. Keep your toes pulled back as much as you can, and start with your foot angled up as much as you can....keep playing with it until your ball contacts solidly before anything else...your toes may touch first, but that's why you need to stretch them and do calf raises so they can be bent back enough when they hit so that the bottoms, not fronts, of your toes hit and they are able to flex back more, not jam. Once you consistently kick light on something hard with the right feeling technique, gradually move up to about 1/4 power, making sure all the way that your technique is still right. Once you can do this, then move up to softly & then kicking the **** out of a kicking bag, seeing if you can do it right before you even think about trying to apply in sparring. Hope this helps.

I use it all the time in my TKD class. Many people nearly broke their toes from using, and I had lots of problems with it when I started out as a white belt. But now it became completely natural and it's pretty easy to hit with the ball of your foot, but sucks ass against moving targets like sparring partners.

I would recommend the 'hump' of the top of the foot like CrazyCrowbarman mentioned. And I had no idea the roundhouse involved hitting with the shin, maybe I've been stuck in TKD for too long.

Just a question, which hits harder? Round shin or round ball of the foot? In terms of sheer power and speed. I gotta mention the superior snapping power of the ball of the foot.